Must See/Do at Disney World NOT in Theme parks?

[Monakie78]

Hi All,

Is it possible to visit Disney World and NOT go to a theme park? Yes! We're doing that the last week of this month. After visiting Disney World 35ish times (that's my # at least) myself and my family planned a last minute trip to Disney World with no intention on going to a theme park. The reason being is because we're going again in October & want to save our money for park tickets for that trip.

Here's what we are doing for this trip....
My dad has a Disney vacation club membership, so we're staying at Old Key West.
We are already booked for a character breakfast at Ohana.
We are already booked for the Hoop-Dee-Do-Revue.
We are going to Blizzard Beach for one day (my 3 year olds request )
We are booked for Fulton's Crab House for a dinner.
We intend to pool hop for a limited # of pools. Disney just changed their policy on where you can pool hop to, so some pools we're not allowed to go to permanently instead of being based on the on/off season.

So my question....what can YOU recommend that we have to try that doesn't involve going into a theme park??? ALSO, since we're going to the Hoop-Dee-Do-Revue, I thought we would pool hop to the Fort Wilderness pool & then head to the show. Does anyone know if they have showers available to the public at Fort Wilderness? Since it does have real camping there, I thought they would. But I can't find public shower info on their website.

[theBIGyowski]

I've heard good things about Splitsville...so you could look into doing that.

Since you're doing a character breakfast at Ohana...you could spend some time after that doing a Monorail Hop where you ride the Monorail to each of the resorts and get off and walk around each one. It will help you walk off the food.

Another thing that is similar would be going to each of the EPCOT resorts and doing the same thing...walking around them and going through the lobbies and stores.

All that said...being that close to MK and EPCOT may make it difficult...knowing you won't go through the gates.

[Monakie78]

Thanks for the suggestions! Splitsville is a good idea! I was thinking about doing a monorail ride as we've done that many times in the past, but I had the same thought that you had...it may be difficult knowing we won't be going to the parks.

[horizons1]

There are a couple threads on the topic of doing other stuff in the resort outside of the parks that might give you more ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6495

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7258

[cy1229]

Cousininmiami took a trip similar to yours, and she wrote a trip report about it. Here's her TR:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8956

[Monakie78]

Wow! Thanks for all the awesome suggestions everyone! A boat ride across the seven seas lagoon sounds like something we would do. I also found that you can buy dole whips at the Polynesian, not just at the park. I'm the only one in my family who has had a dole whip, so that sounds like something we're going to do.

We purchased no expiration tickets a long time ago. Of course, we used up the theme park tickets. Our tickets are still good for the water parks, which we're doing Blizzard Beach this time. But I totally forgot that our tickets also include Disney Quest. My kids are 3, 7, & 9...all are into video games. I think there should be enough for them all to do.

Thanks everyone, I have lots of ideas to work with now! Sometimes you just need to talk it out or type it out in a Disney forum to get the brainstorming flowing

[Monakie78]

Maybe going to Disney Quest is a bad idea. I just read a lot of very recent bad reviews on it. All the times we've been to Disney, we never went there.

[Amy]

Maybe going to Disney Quest is a bad idea. I just read a lot of very recent bad reviews on it. All the times we've been to Disney, we never went there.

If you already have the tickets, you might as well check it out. If it's a bust you aren't out anything, and if the kids enjoy it, all the better!

[Monakie78]

Maybe going to Disney Quest is a bad idea. I just read a lot of very recent bad reviews on it. All the times we've been to Disney, we never went there.

If you already have the tickets, you might as well check it out. If it's a bust you aren't out anything, and if the kids enjoy it, all the better!

We have the option to save the tickets as waterpark tickets instead of Disney Quest since they are no expiration. From the recent bad reviews, that's a big turn off. Disney has always been top notch in my book, so after reading such poor remarks on Disney Quest, it must really be bad

After thinking about it more, I'd rather get us into all the outdoor activities that we can do and not stay inside playing video games.

[Amy]

Maybe going to Disney Quest is a bad idea. I just read a lot of very recent bad reviews on it. All the times we've been to Disney, we never went there.

If you already have the tickets, you might as well check it out. If it's a bust you aren't out anything, and if the kids enjoy it, all the better!

We have the option to save the tickets as waterpark tickets instead of Disney Quest since they are no expiration. From the recent bad reviews, that's a big turn off. Disney has always been top notch in my book, so after reading such poor remarks on Disney Quest, it must really be bad

After thinking about it more, I'd rather get us into all the outdoor activities that we can do and not stay inside playing video games.

If you can save them or turn them into water park tickets, I would definitely go for that option. It does sound like Disney Quest has declined quite a lot

[cy1229]

Six words:

Snorkeling with sharks at Typhoon Lagoon

[Wizzard419]

Doesn't the suggestion of the waterparks violate the rules of "not in the parks"?

You can go to Disney quest if you want, I think a major reason why it has such bad reviews would be due to the reality that the arcade died about 15 years ago.

[Monakie78]

Doesn't the suggestion of the waterparks violate the rules of "not in the parks"?

You can go to Disney quest if you want, I think a major reason why it has such bad reviews would be due to the reality that the arcade died about 15 years ago.

Oops I didn't say no theme parks in my main topic. But I did specify no theme parks in my actual message. You know that I know that you know what I meant anyway, so um yeah

I already talked it out with the family. We're going to skip Disney Quest for sure. If we wanted to play video games all day, then we wouldn't leave the house.

[Monakie78]

Six words:

Snorkeling with sharks at Typhoon Lagoon

This time around we're going to Blizzard Beach. But that might be an option when we go again in October. I think I'll suggest it to my husband. I have a fear of that kind of thing , but he'd do it.

[Wizzard419]

Doesn't the suggestion of the waterparks violate the rules of "not in the parks"?

You can go to Disney quest if you want, I think a major reason why it has such bad reviews would be due to the reality that the arcade died about 15 years ago.

Oops I didn't say no theme parks in my main topic. But I did specify no theme parks in my actual message. You know that I know that you know what I meant anyway, so um yeah

I already talked it out with the family. We're going to skip Disney Quest for sure. If we wanted to play video games all day, then we wouldn't leave the house.

I'm pretty sure the imagineers, marketing teams, etc. would disagree that the water parks are not theme parks.